Abstract
The reset in US–Russia relations has not been universally welcomed. There is much opposition within the Republican Party elite over both individual policies and the approach as a whole.
In the two decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union, relations between the United States and Russia have oscillated between optimism and mutual suspicion. The second administration of George W. Bush (2005–09) is widely acknowledged as the lowest point in post-Cold War bilateral relations, with conflict over a range of prominent and sensitive issues such as missile defence, NATO enlargement, the practice and promotion of democracy, and the August 2008 Russia–Georgia War. In the last years of this period, the question of whether this represented the start of a ‘new Cold War’ was widely discussed.
This changed radically at the start of of Barack Obama’s presidency in early 2009. The ‘reset’ of relations, announced by Vice President Joe Biden in February 2009, was notable for the prominence given Russia on the new foreign-policy agenda, and for its scope, with cooperation envisaged on a range of issues, including many that had been most problematic for relations during the previous administration.
 
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